Indexical Elegies

(Paperback)

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With links to intense poetic works like John Berrymans Dream Songs, Gilbert Sorrentinos Corrosive Sublimate and Erin Mours Furious, Jon Paul Fiorentinos new collection is a whip-smart poetic investigation of anxiety in all its many manifestations. Anxiety caused by geography, anxieties of influence and looming worries about loss inform the poems as they weave narrative threads and associations that highlight both the treachery of language and its necessity in shaping human experience: 'All roads, side roads/all text, signage/All seasons, autumn/ all memories, winter.'

The poems here build on Derridas ideas about the psychological implications of memory and the archival impulse and on philosopher Charles Sanders Peirces semiotics of 'the index.' Indexical Elegies is a rich, emotionally charged work that showcases Fiorentinos talents at their feisty, engaged best. From its Post-Prairie pamphleteering and its comic Montreal musings to its moving elegies, this is provocative poetry that never loses touch with the readers pleasure.

Reviews

'There is no mistaking Fiorentino's sharp wit and precise vocabulary, which are entirely individual -- something far too few writers can claim.' -- Quill and Quire 'In place of mythology and conventional symbols, the poems explore the nature of language through puns, onomatopoeia, and aphorisms about meaning ... [Fiorentino's] combination of feeling and thought gives this book remarkable power.' -- Montreal Review of Books 'Jon Paul Fiorentino offers a diverse smattering of styles that demonstrate an edgy playfulness, attendant to the pun and to sound, to form and to formula.' -- Canadian Literature

Author Bio

Jon Paul Fiorentino is the author of the novel Stripmalling, which was shortlisted for the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, and three poetry collections, including The Theory of the Loser Class, which was shortlisted for the A. M. Klein Prize. He lives in Montreal, where he teaches writing at Concordia University, edits Matrix magazine and runs Snare Books.